It rains downright.

How now! a conduit, girl? what! still in tears?
Evermore showering? In one little body
Thou counterfeit'st a bark, a sea, a wind;
For still thy eyes, which I may call the sea,
Do ebb and flow with tears; the bark thy body is,
Sailing in this salt flood; the winds, thy sighs;
Who, raging with thy tears, and they with them,
Without a sudden calm, will overset

Thy tempest-tossed body. How now, wife!
Have you deliver'd to her our decree?

Lady Cap. Ay, sir; but she will none, she gives you thanks.

I would the fool were married to her grave! Cap. Soft! take me with you, take me with you, wife.

How! will she none? doth she not give us thanks? Is she not proud? doth she not count her bless'd, Unworthy as she is, that we have wrought

So worthy a gentleman to be her bridegroom? Jul. Not proud, you have; but thankful, that you have:

Proud can I never be of what I hate ;

But thankful even for hate, that is meant love. Cap. How now! how now, chop-logic! What is this?

'Proud,' and 'I thank you,' and 'I thank you not'

;

And yet not proud'; mistress minion, you,

Thank me no thankings, nor proud me no prouds,
But fettle your fine joints 'gainst Thursday next,
go with Paris to Saint Peter's church,
Or I will drag thee on a hurdle thither.

To

Out, you green-sickness carrion! out, you baggage! You tallow-face!

Lady Cap.

Fie, fie! what are you mad? Jul. Good father, I beseech you on my knees, Hear me with patience but to speak a word.

Cap. Hang thee, young baggage ! disobedient

wretch !

I tell thee what: get thee to church o' Thursday, Or never after look me in the face.

Speak not, reply not, do not answer me;

My fingers itch-Wife, we scarce thought us bless'd

That God had lent us but this only child;
But now I see this one is one too much,
And that we have a curse in having her.
Out on her, hilding!

Nurse.

God in heaven bless her!

You are to blame, my lord, to rate her so. Cap. And why, my lady wisdom? hold your tongue,

Good prudence; smatter with your gossips; go. Nurse. I speak no treason.

Cap.

Nurse. May not one speak?

Cap.

O! God ye good den.

Peace, you mumbling fool!

You are too hot.

Utter your gravity o'er a gossip's bowl,

For here we need it not.

Lady Cap.

Cap. God's bread! it makes me mad.

Day, night, hour, tide, time, work, play,
Alone, in company, still my care hath been
To have her match'd; and having now provided
A gentleman of noble parentage,

Of fair demesnes, youthful, and nobly train'd,
Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts,
Proportion'd as one's thought would wish a man ;
And then to have a wretched puling fool,
A whining mammet, in her fortune's tender,
To answer 'I'll not wed,' 'I cannot love,'
'I am too young,' 'I pray you, pardon me.'
But, an you will not wed, I'll pardon you!
Graze where you will, you shall not house with

me:

Look to 't, think on 't, I do not use to jest.
Thursday is near; lay hand on heart, advise.
An you be mine, I'll give you to my friend;
An you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets,
For, by my soul, I'll ne'er acknowledge thee,
Nor what is mine shall never do thee good.
Trust to 't, bethink you; I'll not be forsworn.
[Exit.
Jul. Is there no pity sitting in the clouds,
That sees into the bottom of my grief?
O sweet my mother, cast me not away:
Delay this marriage for a month, a week;
Or, if you do not, make the bridal bed
In that dim monument where Tybalt lies.

Lady Cap. Talk not to me, for I'll not speak a word.

Do as thou wilt, for I have done with thee. [Exit. Jul. O God! O nurse! how shall this be prevented?

My husband is on earth, my faith in heaven;
How shall that faith return again to earth,
Unless that husband send it me from heaven
By leaving earth? comfort me, counsel me.

Alack, alack! that heaven

should practise

stratagems

Upon so soft a subject as myself!

What say'st thou hast thou not a word of joy? Some comfort, nurse.

Nurse.

Faith, here it is.

Romeo is banished; and all the world to nothing,
That he dares ne'er come back to challenge you;
Or, if he do, it needs must be by stealth.
Then, since the case so stands as now it doth,
I think it best you married with the county.
O! he's a lovely gentleman;

Romeo's a dishclout to him: an eagle, madam,
Hath not so green, so quick, so fair an eye
As Paris hath. Beshrew my very heart,
I think you are happy in this second match,
For it excels your first: or if it did not,
Your first is dead; or 't were as good he were,
As living here and you no use of him.
Jul. Speakest thou from thy heart?
Nurse.

Or else beshrew them both.

Jul.

Nurse.

And from my soul too;

Amen!

What?

Jul. Well, thou hast comforted me marvellous much.

Go in; and tell my lady I am gone,

Having displeased my father, to Laurence' cell,
To make confession and to be absolved.

Nurse. Marry, I will; and this is wisely done.

[Exit. Jul. Ancient damnation! O most wicked fiend! Is it more sin to wish me thus forsworn,

Or to dispraise my lord with that same tongue
Which she hath praised him with above compare
So many thousand times? Go, counsellor ;
Thou and my bosom henceforth shall be twain.
I'll to the friar, to know his remedy:

If all else fail, myself have power to die.

[Exit.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. Verona.

Friar LAURENCE's Cell.

Enter Friar LAURENCE and PARIS.

Fri. On Thursday, sir? the time is very short. Par. My father Capulet will have it so; And I am nothing slow to slack his haste.

Fri. You say you do not know the lady's mind: Uneven is the course, I like it not.

Par. Immoderately she weeps for Tybalt's death,

And therefore have I little talk'd of love;
For Venus smiles not in a house of tears.
Now, sir, her father counts it dangerous
That she doth give her sorrow so much sway,
And in his wisdom hastes our marriage
To stop the inundation of her tears;
Which, too much minded by herself alone,
May be put from her by society.

Now do you know the reason of this haste.

Fri. [Aside.] I would I knew not why it should be slow'd.

Look, sir, here comes the lady towards my cell.